I never noticed how long a Northern Flicker’s beak is until one starting showing up at our suet feeder recently. If he wanted to, he could poke his beak clean through the suet cake!
Northern Flickers eat mostly ants, and you’ll sometimes see them on the ground in yards or parks pecking at ant hills. In the colder months they eat berries. They’ll also visit backyard feeders where they prefer sunflowers, peanuts, safflower, cracked corn and millet in addition to suet.
Flickers have a long, sticky tongue that’s used to snatch up ants. Or, apparently poke at suet:
They also have a cool little red patch behind their heads that looks to me like a bird in flight:
